Snapped during the landing.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/06/curiosity_mars_reconnaissance_orbiter/

I’m pretty worried now that amongst the assorted miseries of STW I seem to be the only one that thinks this is a massive, pointless waste of 3.6 billion dollars!

kerv: “What’s the space program every done for us, eh?“

….

Good question GrahamS, certainly not the roads, sanitation, irrigation etc etc. 🙂

Kerv, that’s probably close to the amount of money the last government squandered on a useless IT system for the NHS that was recently cancelled having never ever worked, along with the regional emergency control centres that nobody wanted but were built anyway for a truly insane amount of money. The Taunton one is still empty, and costing millions to keep empty.
Still, what Prescott wanted, Prescott got… 🙄

Kerv, that’s probably close to the amount of money the last government squandered on a useless IT system for the NHS

Yep. Complete waste. Might as well have blasted the lot into space.

Oh.. wait…

Space is ace. The only thing I would rather spend the money on is creating a woolly mammoth.

kerv – Member
I’m pretty worried now that amongst the assorted miseries of STW I seem to be the only one that thinks this is a massive, pointless waste of 3.6 billion dollars!

“The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space—each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.”
— XKCD

http://xkcd.com/893

“The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space—each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.”
— XKCD

Is this for or against spending the money?

“Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.” What better cure for global warming, than to go somewhere that could be made inhabitable with a buttload of global warming? What better cure for the world trade deficit than another world?

Let’s go back to mud huts and a flat earth with death by the time you were 23

The human race has “wasted” money pushing boundaries for a hundred thousand years, we should never ever stop

Let’s go back to mud huts and a flat earth with death by the time you were 23

Yes, let’s, because that’s the only alternative, isn’t it?

Ok then what is the alternative

What we do in terms of exploration is what we do as a race, I think it’s amazing

In terms of cost it’s nothing really

Science for its own sake is great, but surely there are more pressing problems? They would also represent great feats of achievement and ingenuity. They just don’t grab headlines as well.

Ok the space programme invented Velcro. Cool, but we could really use working nuclear fusion, effective energy storage, desalination, that kind of thing.

What we do in terms of exploration is what we do as a race, I think it’s amazing

Why explore in the first place?
You clearly have a very strong point of view on this and I really can’t be arsed.
The quote offered was quite ambiguous in my opinion as it assumes that we agree with the ideas as a justification.
Planting crops because people need to eat is a bit clearer in its aims.

My point is that what is being done on mars is no more a leap than the trek out of the rift valley, the population of the pacific islands or migration throughout the world.

The inevitability of it is part of our DNA, as is healthcare, ass communication, democracy and tinned tomato soup

don simon – Member
“The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space—each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.”
— XKCD

Is this for or against spending the money?

I’d rather be a rememberer than the remembered.

On the point of rocket braked re-entry I think that both the Russians and Chinese use retro rocket braking in the final stages of the return to earth.

And the cost of it all? Less than the London egg and Sponn races. The benefits? People argued that the Apollo programme was a waste as well; forty years on we use so much of the technology spun off form Apollo in our daily lives that we don’t even notice. And satelites are used not just by the ‘rich’ nations, but by much of the world for all manner of useful purposes.

I find the waste of money argument a little odd. We have the cash and resources to do both space exploration (Which has given us more than just velcro) AND sort out sanitation etc. Including satellites which are responsible for saving countless lives each year in navigation of both normal folk, commercial vehicles and allowing further energy exploration etc among many many other things.

Cash is not the problem with most places that struggle with sanitation and humanitarian issues – generally it’s humans that are the problem. If it wasn’t for corruption and dodgy dealings significantly more could be done to improve the lives of the impoverished. 3.6Bn is small fry in a big pond, and at least is expanding our knowledge, experience, skills, employing tens of thousands of people and providing inspiration.

Why explore in the first place?

They dreamed about it when they were kids, and are fulfilling their dreams.
That’s reason enough for me.
As for the quote, let it serve as a reminder that money is not the root of all human endeavours.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGMDXy-Y1I[/video]

3.6Bn is small fry in a big pond

Not really relevant. £3.6bn could house a lot of people. It’s still a lot of money.

ha ha yunkii got sent that one today but it had a nasty swear word init begining with F and ending with off .

Not really relevant. £3.6bn could house a lot of people. It’s still a lot of money.

Better spent on a scientific mission enhancing our knowledge of the universe, than filling up the coffers of the richest individuals on the planet who think they can take their money with them beyond the grave and won’t relinquish any of it for the benefit of others.

Not really relevant. £3.6bn could house a lot of people. It’s still a lot of money.

So could the disgraceful bonuses given to the bosses of failed banking groups and bloody hedge fund managers.
Don’t see those assholes being magnanimous and giving their millions away to house the homeless.
Do you?

Why explore in the first place?

Were you the bloke saying that to Magellan, to Drake, to Cabot?
One of the whiney stay-at-homes, not one of the ones to head out into the unknown, then. 🙄

£3.6bn could house a lot of people. It’s still a lot of money.

Yep, sure could…but then the $3.6bn is small fry when compared to a $680bn defence budget for example, which could house a heck of a lot more people and possibly make the world a slightly fluffier place if it were spent elsewhere.

A lot of people seem to resent the paltry amount humanity spends each year on exploring space to further our knowledge, whilst simultaneously ignoring the the amount of $$$s we all spend on ways to be slightly more crappy to one another.

So let me put it to you this way, which would you rather spend $3.6bn on, a massively clever rover exploring Mars which may go some way to answer questions that have captivated mankind since the dawn of time, or an Arleigh Burke class destroyer?

It would be lovely if we could all just get on, and if we had all, as nations, developed at the same rate, without attempting to exploit as many other nations as possible, and if there weren’t so many varied and colourful ideologies and religions.

Were that the case, and if some nations weren’t still trying to do all the above unpleasant things, then yes, there would be no need for huge defence budgets.

But sadly, that’s not the case. In the meantime, whilst we wait for everyone to just play nicely, every penny spent on extending the knowledge of the race is a very good thing.

already started littering a new planet….

One mans exploring is another mans littering 🙂 maybe it will evolve into optimus prime.

Tweets by SarcasticRover

🙂

Its only money… 🙂

Do we own Mars now?

Sarcastic Rover – The first rule of MARTIAN ROVER CLUB is you can talk about it as much as you want because we’re all alone and never going home.

😆

Seriously, these tweets.. are thay actually coming from the Rover..

Or

Aliens.

??

Or

Aliens.

??

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Kyi0WNg40[/video]

Have they claimed Mars as theirs like they do with the South Pole?